• Born in 1971, New York City • John Steptoe and Stephanie Douglas

• Grew up in an artistic household• High School of Art and Design• Degree in fine arts from Cooper Union, NYC• Worked with kids through:

• Brooklyn Children’s Museum• Children’s Museum of Manhattan• Kindergarten assistant teacher for a year

John Steptoe Author/Illustrator

Principal Works Stevie, 1969Uptown, 1970Train Ride, 1971Birthday, 1972My Special Best Words, 1974Marcia, 1976Daddy Is a Monster. . . Sometimes, 1980Mother Crocodile, 1982 (text by Rosa Guy)The Story of Jumping Mouse: A Native American Legend*, 1984Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale*, 1987

Died of complication from AIDS in late August of 1989

In My Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers

•Lee & Low Books, 1997

•Javaka Steptoe’s first time illustrating a Children’s book

•Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award

•Nominated for Outstanding Children’s Literature Work at the 1998 NAACP Image Awards

• A finalist ranking for the Bluebonnet Award for Excellence in Children’s Books

•Received the 2005 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award

“I might do the same things he does, but I can’t

do them the way he did them, so I do

things the way that I do them. I don’t have a problem being identified with him, but

ultimately I will make my own footsteps.”

“Promises”, David A. Anderson

http://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=3682&a=1&crc=1

The Jones Family ExpressWritten and Illustrated by Javaka Steptoe

•Lee & Low 2003

Hot Day on Abbott AvenueWritten by Karen English

Illustrated by Javaka Steptoe

Clarion Books, 2004

•Received the 2005 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award

Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah NY2007 exhibit, Children Should Be Seen: The Image of the Child in American Picture-Book Art

from “Hot Day On Abbot Avenue” by Karen English.Illustration copyright © 2004 by Javaka Steptoe.

• “…collage is one of those central metaphors of the African diaspora. A lot of art…is

oftentimes a collage of other forms. It’s about making do, it’s about economic factors that we

had in our past. This is part of what quilt-making is for me right now. It’s about taking

those little pieces of something and putting them together. I think that’s why we have

such giants of collage…because as Black people we have a special relationship to it”

"...collage is a means of survival. It is how Black folks survived four hundred

years of oppression, taking the scraps of life and transforming

them into art forms."

JimiSounds like a Rainbow

A Story of the Young Jimi HendrixBy Gary Golio

Illustrated by Javaka SteptoeClarion Books 2010

•2011 Coretta Scott King Award honor book

•Winner of 2011 New York Book Show Non-Fiction Award

What’s Special About Me Mama?Words by Kristina Evans

Illustration by Javaka SteptoeHyperion, 2011

Javaka Steptoe, children's author and illustrator and alumnus of P.S. 125, reads to children at Read Out Loud! (A family literacy festival on December 5, 2009 at the Ralph Bunche School (P.S. 125) in Manhattan.)

• http://morningsidealliance.org/read-out-loud-post-event/

• http://studio-online.com/so/?p=650• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN9ZkCR1bOo (Uploaded

by leeandlow08 on Aug 12, 2008)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJmxEqePIKg&feature=related (Uploaded by elliottzetta on Apr 28, 2010Created on April 28, 2010 using FlipShare.)